Yokohama Geolandar G015 and Toyo Open Country AT3 are the most on road aligned all-terrain (A/T) tires that you can get. But they are capable of handling off-road scenarios as well. Overall, both offer great daily drivers and are nice picks for light trucks and SUVs.
Yokohama Geolandar G015 provides better on road comfort and wet grip, combined with superior snow traction (though both have 3 peak mountain snowflake rating), whereas the Toyo Open Country AT3 offers shorter braking distances and handling times on dry, is more fuel efficient and offer longer lasting tread. Moreover, overall its better off-road as well, in gravel, dirt, rocks, and even mud.
Table of Contents
Sizes Info
The following are some useful points to remember about the sizes of both tires.
Let me start off with Toyo Open Country AT3. So this tire comes with 148 total sizes having 15 to 22 inches of rim sizes, and all these sizes have following specs.
- They have speed ratings of Q, R, S, T and even H.
- Load ratings of C to F.
- Weight range of 30 lbs to 72 lbs.
- Tread depth ranging from 12.7/32″ to 17/32″.
- 65k miles warranty.
- And have 3pmsf and M+S ratings for snow.
The Yokohama Geolandar AT, on the other side, gives you a total of 112 sizes, where it ranges from 15 and goes up to 22 inches.
- Here load ratings available are: SL, XL, C, D and E
- Weight range: 25 to 70 lbs (which is very similar in comparison).
- Available speed ratings are R, S, T, and H (again very similar).
- Tread depth range, 12 to 18/32″ (most sizes have 17/32″).
- LT sizes come with 50k miles warranty, whereas others offer 60k miles.
- And yes, you get similar winter ratings as well.
Tread Comparison
Starting things off with Toyo Open Country AT3, this tire offers a new gen tread design.
In the middle you get to see S shaped lugs with thick foundational supports underneath, this is where this tire gets its most directional grip from.
The surrounding lugs are smaller, though they have notches facing in all directions and similar full depth siping.
All these lugs are separated with vertical running grooves, bordering the shoulder blocks.
Speaking of which, it’s shoulder lugs although have wide enough gaps in between, the ridges placements pack them together tightly (some call them connectors too).
Actually the whole shoulder rib has secondary layer of rubber running underneath, and all lugs are placed on it.
This allows Toyo AT3 to have amazing lateral stability even at higher speeds.
On the other side, the Yokohama Geolandar G015 offers smaller lugs everywhere, which are even more packed.
The tread is actually consisting of 5 ribs.
The middle most is slightly narrower having lateral zigzag grooves in them, whereas as the surrounding ribs are made out of bigger lugs having both lateral and longitudinal slits (embedded as groove notches).
All these ribs are packed in, with longitudinal grooves running outside, separating the shoulder lugs.
These lugs on sides, make a redundant pattern throughout, having notches facing the middle tread and stepped edges on the outer margins.
They are not staggered like its competitor, but you can say each block is serrated on itself.
Lastly, the tread of this tire is pretty spongy, but as all of the ribs have continuous running layers underneath, they offer decent on road stability, where speed ratings go up to H, just like the Toyo AT3.
Let’s check out more of these specs, their sizes have to offer.
Internal Built
Internal make-up of the tire requires a lot of engineering as it’s what decides how strong a tire is overall.
Both tires offer 2 ply polyester casing (which act as the skeleton, as everything else sits on top of this cover).
It carries 2 steel belts and a layer of nylon covering (also known as the cap ply).
Though still as the Yokohama Geolandar offers spirally wound nylon cap ply, it’s sidewalls are somewhat better protected compared to Toyo Open Country AT3.
Dry Traction
Dry traction is further rooted from two factors, where the major portion is taken up by handling (measured by how fast a tire is on curves) and the other part is based on tires grip (calculated by measuring the stopping distances of the tire, when braked from a specific speed, usually 50 mph).
Toyo Open Country AT3 is better in both sections, as its dry grip comes from central S shaped lugs with stiffer composition, so they form a direct contact response to the steering. And on corners, the firm block placement ensure the grip is kept at all times.
Yokohama Geolandar G015 on the other hand, offers a more flexing tread, and even though it’s on-road oriented design gives a stable contact, the lugs mold around more and lose the tire’s energy that would have otherwise be consumed with rolling.
Wet Traction
The overall traction of the tire on wet roads is determined by calculating grip and hydroplaning resistance.
Let me start off with grip.
Grip
Grip of a tire depends on sipes which also need to be flexible enough too, as they literally suck in the water coming underneath them, and that’s how they wipe off the water clean.
Yokohama Geolandar G015 offers this feature. It’s tread is already very soaking, and with an interlocking design of sipes, their efficiency of cleaning water off improves significantly.
Toyo Open Country AT3 on the other side, offers rigid siping and these sipes have to work more, as water is not evacuated through its grooves in time. This actually comes under hydroplaning.
Aquaplaning
Aquaplaning or hydroplaning happens when a tire is not able to evacuate water off it’s tread quickly, and it starts to float, losing all traction.
So a tire can only go up to a specific speed as going above would cause this (max a tire can reach is called float speeds).
In terms of float speeds, the maximum Yokohama Geolandar G015 can reach is 53 mph (better) compared to 52 mph of Toyo AT3.
Yokohama A/T tire’s superior hydroplaning resistance is attributed to its 4 aqua channels that form straight forward pathways for water to gush out quickly.
Tread Wear and Fuel Usage
Tread wear depends on two factors, how prone is the tire’s rubber to wear, and how long it would take to wear.
A softer rubber wears off faster, but at the same time, if it’s rubber is thick (has greater tread depth), it would take longer to burn.
Both tires have same weight and tread depth factors (looking at all sizes I mean), so here with softer compound, Yokohama Geolandar A/T wears off faster.
Similarly, it’s sloppy rubber sticks on the road with more force, and it requires more energy to un-stick, and that consumes larger energy with higher rolling resistance.
Toyo Open Country AT3 on the other side, has a stiffer composition, so on roads, it rolls with less resistance.
That’s the reason why increasing the pressure of the tires increase fuel economy.
Recommended Read: Do all-terrain tires wear faster?
Ride Comfort
A tire up to the mark in this section has to be silent on roads, and it should be able to soak up the on road vibrations.
Yokohama Geolandar G015 compromises a lot on dry roads, fuel economy and wear, and this is where it all pays off.
It’s superior capability to flex more when meeting with the rougher surface allows the energy of the vibrations to get consumed (in deforming the tire). In other words, due to it’s better ability to soak up the bumps, they aren’t felt more to the driver.
Furthermore, Geolandar A/T is also great at dampening the noise with it’s tight tread voids.
The Toyo Open Country AT3 on the other side, although also offers ridges in between shoulder lugs, restricting the air to come in, it’s grooves are still wider in comparison.
So in this tire’s case, air comparatively has more area to move around and hit the walls to create noise.
Out of all other tires, the Yokohama Geolandar A/T offers the best comfort, that’s why I added this tire in my tire driver’s list.
Winter Performance
Both of these A/T tires have 3 peak mountain snowflake ratings, yet still the Yokohama Geolandar AT comes out better.
This is because the tire’s tread is equipped with a lot of bites and they are very flexible to stretch and squeeze, grabbing the snow and trapping it in grooves.
The trapped snow then makes better traction (as snow sticks on snow).
The Toyo Open Country AT3 on the other side, has less siping in comparison, and although it’s biters are great for snow, it’s stiffer tread is not that flexible and is more susceptible to getting even more rigid with freezing temperatures.
Off Road Traction
Off road, there are a lot of terrains to consider, I’ve discussed all the significant ones below.
Muddy Tracks
All-terrain tires are although very voided, they still don’t make wide enough grooves to allow mud to leave out that easily.
That’s why mud tires exists. (And they are named mud-terrain, because mud is the most challenging terrain of all).
Both tires, I am discussing here are not good on mud at all, but still out of them you can rely on Toyo AT3 a little more, if you have to.
Although its shoulder lugs are crowded together restricting sideways mud evacuation, it’s traction scoops (staggered shoulder lugs), offer scooping abilities that produce forward moving aid.
Yokohama Geolandar G015 on the other hand, does not offer any mud scoops, and it’s sideways evacuation is more challenged in comparison, as it’s 4 continuous running ribs come in the way.
Rocky Trails
The Toyo Open Country AT3 offers a better bite on rocks, and although it’s tread is slightly stiffer, it can be dealt with by lowering the air pressure of the tire (which by the way, also enhances the footprint with the help of sidewall lugs).
Side Note: Nitto and Toyo are a part of one company, and like Nitto Tires, Toyo AT3 is also coming in with dual sidewall design.
Yokohama Geolandar G015 on the flip side doesn’t offer aggressive enough sidewall lugs, and with smaller groove mouth, it’s not able to grab the rocky surface with superior grip, though its softer rubber helps it’s notches to flex and provide a satisfactory experience (given the terrain is lighter).
Sandy Dunes
Sand requires airing down your tires, so they could increase the overall tread print (which is very significant for this type of terrain).
Yokohama Geolandar G015 is great at it. It’s softer rubber already flexes in a better way on sand, and airing it down to a minimum PSI allows it to have better results further.
Toyo AT3 is also good enough, and my only complaint with this tire is that it digs more.
Digging is the worst enemy of sand traction, so you have to avoid that as much as possible.
Recommended Read: All A/T tires good on sand?
Gravely Roads
On gravel, stone get lodged in the tread quickly, which then can cause damage to the tread and can limit the tire’s handling and directional traction abilities.
To handle this, tires are equipped with stone ejectors which can throw away the trapped snow. The tread of the off road tires are also made chip resistant so that they can not get damaged too easily.
Both tires although offers new gen tread compound which give good enough capability of resisting cuts off roads, their packed up lugs don’t allow any stone ejector placements.
Though, Toyo Open Country AT3 is much better still, as it’s wider grooves don’t invite stone to get trapped.
Key Takeaway
Yokohama Geolandar G015 is one of the top performing all-terrain tires when it comes to overall comfort, thanks to it’s silica rich compound which keeps it’s rubber soft and spongy.
That’s why it’s superior in wet and snow traction as well.
On the flip side, the Toyo Open Country AT3 offers the opposite, it does better on dry, has superior fuel economy, and it’s stiffer compound allows you to have more mileage.
So in the end, the choice is yours.
Great review! The comparisons were those that are most interesting to me as I live in the upper Midwest where we have cold temps with a lot of snow and wet roads during three seasons of the year. With that said, we also have our off-road fun in the summer months that putting on the right tires that are more dialed into that time of year is just as important. I can see buying a set of each and swapping them out as the seasons change.